Seattle Schools Community Forum

Update 2:  Arne strikes back.  Today Sec'y Duncan, in an apparent effort to shore up support (and that's putting it nicely), pretty much threatened the state of Oklahoma for backing out of Common Core. Word to the wise, Secretary Duncan, want to make even MORE people suspicious of Common Core? Try the federal government strong-arm. You're only giving them more to work with. From Yahoo News: Duncan had ominous words for states that buck the Common Core trend. “We partner with states whether they’re in Common Core or have their own high standards. But where we will challenge status quo is when states dummy down standards,” he warned. End of update. Update:   the NY Times is reporting the Gates Foundation has "called" for a two-year moratorium on states making any "high-stakes decisions based on tests aligned to the new standards."  Well, that's big of them considering THEY have caused this rush to new standards and testing.  The letter ...

As you may recall, there was a school board election in LA in April that had an odd feature - millions of dollars poured into it by corporate ed reformers from outside the state.  Even in mega-large, uber-urban LA, there was surprise over why this was happening. Out of three candidates, one ed reformer won, one moderate won (who had been targeted nonetheless by the ed reform crowd) and one seat went to a runoff. Yesterday that runoff was held. The ed reform candidate, Antonio Sanchez, had an interesting combo - labor unions and money from the political-action committee formed by outgoing LA mayor, Antonio Villaraigosa (which was more than $1M). His opponent was Monica Ratliff, a career teacher.  She went out and got newspaper endorsements and relied on small donors.  She raised about $50k. I don't see that the race has been called but Diane Ravitch is reporting that Ratliff has won, with 52% of the vote.  Unless something really shifts, I suspect Ratliff wi...